Protests in Iran unlikely to bring about regime change

Xinhua, February 17, 2011

Different cultures

Eldad Prado from the Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Xinhua that there are significant cultural differences between the two countries, in addition to the political ones.

In Iran, the protests began in June 2009 and went on to get pretty aggressive as a mass movement all the way until December. But they died out due the extremely harsh and cruel reaction by the government, Prado said.

"The similarities between the situations in Iran and Egypt are that these movements are led by young people informed with Western values of democracy," Prado said.

"The political culture in Egypt is different from that of Iran, " Prado said, adding that "Iran has a culture that focuses on martyrdom."

"In Iran, the slogan is 'death to the dictator,' while in Egypt, the slogans is 'the people want the regime to fall,'" Prado added.